Will's 6th birthday

I've mentioned that we do special days for our kids' birthdays. For Will he wanted to go to Rock City. He had decided earlier in the summer that that was what he wanted to do, and he patiently counted down the days. My sister was in town, so her family and my parents joined us. It was a fun day that lasted all day! We started off with a donut breakfast and ended with a large family gathering at Amigo's for dinner after all of our Rock City fun. Will had a great day & I'm so glad we got to celebrate him!

Our baseball birthday party!

Our boys love baseball! We are constantly watching, playing or talking baseball at our house. So when it was time to think about a birthday party for the boys, a baseball party made sense.

We went to the Ooltewah ball fields, which is where we play ball, and invited friends an family to come play wiffle ball and to compete in a home run derby. We also had a base running competition. All the kids had fun & they all left with a medal for winning or competing in one of our games.

We also set up a concession stand, or cession stand as Luke calls it, for everyone to get snacks. I think this was Luke's favorite part, but then again he lived at the cession stand during the season!

All in all we had fun celebrating our boys!

Things to remember

My sweet Luke is four. This child is absolutely adorable and he has my whole heart! Here are a few things I hope I never forget about Luke at this age:

* he loves to eat, if you let him snack all day he would be the happiest kid in the world!
* he always asks for a hug and kiss. If it's not "good" enough he will give you another.
* he loves to play baseball and can't wait to play with his brother on daddy's team this fall
* he is Mr. Independent. He loves to do things by himself and for himself.
* he watches out for his little sister Wynn. He is a protective big brother.
* he still wants mommy and daddy snuggles and we are happy to give them!
* his favorite books are the Pete the Cat books
* he loves to be outside playing in the sandbox or on our fort, riding his scooter, riding his bike or swimming
* he loves to take a bubble bath
* he loves to wear jammies and comfy clothes. He calls them yogurt clothes. I told him once I was wearing yoga pants and he thought I said yogurt!
* he tells me he loves me everyday!

We love you Luke and look forward to watching you grow and change this year!

Luke turns 4

I have said it before, but birthdays are a big deal at our house. To me birthdays are a reason to celebrate and really make our kids feel special. On our kid's birthday we allow them to pick a place to go do something fun and a place to go out to eat. We call it their "special day". All of our kids' birthdays fall within 3 months of each other (May to August). Luke's is July 23rd and fell on a Wednesday.

This year Luke picked going to play putt-putt at Sir Gooney's and dinner at Los Potros. The restaurant has murals of horses on the walls and Luke calls it the horse restaurant. It's one of his favorite places to eat.

We had fun and I'm pretty sure Luke went to bed feeling like the most loved kid in the world. I sure hope so, at least!

How quickly things change

Our life has been crazy over the past 8 weeks. We found a house, played a complete summer baseball season, moved into and unpacked a whole house. I'm not sure I feel settled yet! But in the middle of the crazy, I forgot to post and as I logged on tonight I found an entry I had been working on, but had yet to post. In the course of a month and a half Wynn has gone from full time crawling to full time walking, Luke turned 4 and got a big boy haircut which makes him look even older, Will made incredible strides in baseball and ended his summer with a double play and a couple of great catches! And me, well, I'm going back to work, part-time, when the school year begins. More on that and the rest to come soon...

Precious Moments

Today was a normal day in our house. Nothing special, normal routine. But in the course of going about our day I noticed to pretty big things happen to Wynn and Luke.

This morning Wynn decided to stand by herself, without holding onto anything and take a few steps. This is a big deal. She is 13 months and not walking. In fact showing little interest in walking. She crawls, very well and very fast. Evidently this is good enough for her. But we have been walking with her, holding her little hands and helping her practice. This usually results in crying, but sometimes she humors us.

This afternoon I was putting on a pair of pants that have always been tight on Luke and noticed that they fit a lot better. I also noticed that Luke had slimmed down quite a bit or grown a little taller. Either way, he is growing up into a little boy and moving farther away from the chubby toddler that we have known so well.

Funny, but it wasn't until after I had seen both of these moments that my mind registered what a big deal it was, at least to me. But, its official, our babies are growing up. And these moments are so special to me. Its these moments that have me at home full time. Its these moments that make me glad, happy, blessed, excited to be home and to get to witness our little ones grow. Its these moments that I'll cherish.

Wynn's 1st birthday!

Wynn on her 1st birthday.

Hard to believe, but our little girl is one!! Miss Wynn turned 1 on May 11. This year it fell on Mother's Day, but we celebrated her the week after and had a birthday parade in her honor. All of our cousins and family came to help celebrate her. We also had Wynn dedicated at her party. With so many family members coming to the party, it only made sense to have Poppy(Mike's Dad) step back into his pastor shoes and officiate as Mike and I dedicated Wynn. All in all, it was a big day for our family and one that we won't forget.

Classic mom/dad/baby 1st birthday pic. Not sure Wynn is happy about it!

Diving in. She ended up LOVING the cake!

Ready for the parade!

Opening presents!

Listening as Poppy Paul officiates the dedication.

After the dedication.

Smash cake

Wynn's birthday cake. Got it from Walmart. I thought it was super cute!